RAINBOW TOUR | Nearly 200 beachcombers — including the author (dark green, just right of center) — stepped away from the surf and gathered in a field to form a human rainbow flag.

The trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C., had more to do with a family reunion than finding a good destination for gay travelers. After all, Myrtle Beach is a pretty lazy, conservative town in the perennial Red State, one where teenaged spring breakers and families gather to enjoy the warm surf and the resort-town appeal of seafood and beachcombing and overpriced cocktails. Queer travelers can hit one of the three gay bars, all within blocks of each other — Club Traxx, Time Out! and the Rainbow House (a lesbian club).

But the weekend I arrived , just by coincidence, it turned out to be Gay Pride.

Keep in mind, the gay community in Myrtle Beach is small, so “Gay Days,” plural, felt more like Gay Day, singular: One major event and then life as usual in Coastal Carolina.

The major event, though, was an ambitious one: Gathering members of the LGBT community and their allies to form a “human rainbow flag:” People signed up to wear a pastel-colored T-shirt and arrange themselves in the traditional configuration. A few others wore black, forming the flagpole.

The entire event was threatened by showers late Friday and early Saturday, but despite a slightly muddy field, nearly 200 people turned out, huddled closely on a muggy afternoon, while a photographer flew above in a helicopter.

Numbers weren’t uniform; there were too many reds and too few purples; but the effect was one of a flag waving in the breeze.

In order to do the shoot, members faced each other before bending forward to allow the broad field of their shirts to form the colors. Directly across from me stood Elke Kennedy, a resident of Greenville in the Upstate. Elke and her husband established SeansLastWish.org, raising awareness of anti-gay violence, after their gay son was beaten to death and his killer spent less than a year in jail.

Elke spoke at a rally following the photoshoot, and dozens in attendance listened to her recount her son’s harrowing attack and death before two drag queens performed and a DJ spun dance hits. People started to file out after a while, off to the beach, or the clubs, or even the boardwalk, where the Texas Star-like Skywheel gives great views of the beach … and sits next door to the campily named souvenir shop the Gay Dolphin.

The latter was always may favorite place when I was growing up; you’d think my parents would have caught on sooner.

Nineteen year old Michael Anderson (left) has confessed to the murder of Stephen Starr, 35, in Hickory, North Carolina, telling a police dispatcher that it was an overdose of Mucinex combined with Starr’s unwanted advances that caused him to shoot and hack Starr to death.

Starr was found in bed in what law enforcement has described as one of the most gruesome crime scenes they’ve seen in years. Anderson was charged with Starr’s murder Monday afternoon and has his first court appearance Wednesday morning. Anderson called 911 while next to Starr’s body in the master bedroom, with a gun still in his hands, according to the 911 call. Anderson was holding the pistol, Fish said. In the call, Anderson says he took some pills that “made me go mad.” He tells the woman at the communications center that he shot his roommate three times and then used an ax and mutilated his body. “I Od’d on Mucinex DM. Dextromethorphan makes me feel a little weird and I took too many,” Anderson said.

About 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the call, the telecommunicator asks what sparked the attack. Anderson said it was because he was straight, and Starr was gay. According to him, the two met at a gay club. Anderson said he was straight, but went to the club to experiment. “I met him and went to his house and he took me in and I turned straight again. And he wanted to touch me and stuff and I wouldn’t let him, and he kept trying. And I waited until he went to sleep and then I shot him three times. And I mutilated him very badly and I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Oh God, please help me.”

The comments on the above-linked newspaper article are predictably filled with citations of Leviticus and kindly Christian admonitions that the deceased had it coming. Here’s Anderson’s 911 call to report having committed the murder.

Back in 2002 Gregory Beauchamp (pictured) was shot and killed by a man driving by in a car with some pals. That man, Jerry "J-Rock" Jones, who last we heard was already behind bars for another conviction, will now serve a 25-year sentence for being a complete human stain.

In the White House's latest attempt to control the Don't Ask Don't tell propaganda machine, it has released this EXCLUSIVE BEHIND THE SCENES VIDEOS of last week's Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal signing. It's almost enough to distract you from the fact that Don't Ask Don't Tell, uh, has not been repealed. 12/12/10: Never forget.

Andrew Compton, a gay college student at Sullivan University in Louisville, Kentucky, has been missing since Oct. 28, and police all but believe he's dead. Search crews are today combing a landfill looking for his body, which officials suspect was dumped by a one Gregory O'Bryan, 40, who's charged with murdering the 18-year-old during sex.

"One lone juror was the holdout, refusing to vote with the 11 others who stood ready to convict 18-year-old John Katehis of murder. The broadcast journalist, 47, went online to hire Katehis, then 16, from craigslist to act out a smothering scene at his Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, home. Despite the 50 stab wounds Weber suffered, the unidentified female juror holdout 'didn't believe they proved intent,' said fellow juror Darryl Turner, 52, of Cypress Gardens, Brooklyn. 'There was a lot of fighting this morning, but she wouldn't budge,' he said. 'It is what it is.'"

D.C. police arrested Marcus Mclean for the Aug. 8 stabbing death of Delando King, 34, a gay federal worker who was seen on security cameras entering his apartment building with an unidentified man early Sunday morning. The man was seen leaving the building alone, carrying a filled bag; items were reported missing from the apartment. King, who worked for the U.S. Indian Health Service, a unit of the Department of Health & Human Services, was found dead in his third floor apartment.